One of the most hypocritical and insane comments I will ever hear from the Rise fandom is slandering 2012 Donnie for following April in Season 2 and saying how Rise Donnie is so much better while completely ignoring the fact that Rise Donnie AND Leo followed April AND her friend for a much worse reason? 😭 Oh, right, but y'all won't talk about that. Anything to keep the Rise glaze going amirite lads or amirite lads? 😂✌️
I don't think people realise that 2012 Donnie was not following April simply because he wanted to or assume that him following her was motivated by his feelings. And, no to both of those things. That episode where Donnie was trailing behind her was during a period of time where April was no contact with the turtles (the main people ready to drop everything and PROTECT HER at a moment's notice). That's because April blamed the turtles for her father's mutation and refused to hear them out when they wanted to say their side of the story.
Several villains are aware of April's existence at this point, and April has been captured and has had things come after her before, (Mugged by the Purple Dragons in Season 1, captured by the Kraang in Season 1's finale) so it is extremely reasonable for the turtles to be concerned about her safety, especially if she's radio silent. (It's safe to assume that if she wasn't meeting up with them, she wasn't answering any 'Are you ok?' messages either).
While you could argue that she still has her T-Phone for if something happened, phones can quickly be broken or taken, T-Phone tracking signals have been lost at several different points in the actual show. And even at that, by the time the turtles respond to a 'Help' message or call, she might already be badly hurt or captured.
While respecting boundaries like 'I want to be left alone' ARE important, this is a universe with villains and aliens bent on experimenting on April or using her as bait for the turtles. At a point, some boundaries have to be tossed for your safety.
The two things Donnie says when April discovers him are, "How have you been?" (concern) and "April, it wasn't OUR fault."
He's not there to talk about himself or make it about feeling rejected by his crush. He was not following her out of his feelings. He was wandering behind her out of concern and because he wanted a chance to explain their side of things.
While I get that Rise Don and Leo's following eventually turned into something similar (protecting April and Sunita from danger) because the Foot Clan were going after them, their initial reason for following and spying on their friend was because they DIDN'T TRUST HER TO HAVE A NORMAL DAY WITHOUT THEM. 😭
2012 Donnie always had somewhat of a valid reason from the very start, Rise just nosy asf.